ROCKVILLE, Md. — Approximately 25 runners from D.C., Northern Virginia and Montgomery County participated in a virtual Boston Marathon Saturday morning.
The runners, who all qualified for the Boston Marathon earlier this year, were forced to get creative after Boston's Mayor Martin Walsh announced the in-person Marathon would be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, the 124th Boston Marathon is being held as a series of virtual events the week of September 7-12.
The D.C. area race started and ended at Lake Needwood in Rockville at 6:30 a.m. Runners completed the 13.1 mile course twice and finished underneath an official Boston Marathon Finish banner.
The race was organized by Dan DiFonzo of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club. DiFonzo has run 50 marathons and ultra-marathons including the last 14 Boston Marathons, according to his bio on the Road Runners Club website.
The Boston Marathon was canceled for the first time in its 124-year history in May. The race had been originally postponed until September 14 before being scrapped completely.
The race, which is the world's oldest annual marathon, had been held every year since 1897.
"While our goal and our hope is to make progress in containing the virus and recovering our economy, this kind of event would not be responsible or realistic on September 14 or any time this year," Walsh tweeted.